Recently, most notebook computers have built-in image pickup devices for taking photographs or holding video conferences. With increasing development of digital techniques, text documents are gradually created as electronic files. Generally, text documents are scanned by scanning apparatuses and then saved as electronic files such as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. In a case that no scanning apparatus is linked to the notebook computer, the images of simple documents such as single-sided papers or business card may be captured by the built-in image pickup device. The images captured by the built-in image pickup device are usually saved as JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files. Most users prefer using scanning apparatuses to scan the text documents as PDF files because the texts and signs contained in the PDF files are readable by the computer systems and may be converted as editable text files.
As known, optical character recognition (OCR) is a process of capturing an image of a document and then extracting the texts from that image. Recently, it is possible to analyze images that are captured from the image pickup device by the OCR technique and saved as JPEG files. As a consequence, individual texts or signs contained in the JPEG files are recognized and converted as editable text files. Since the associated OCR techniques are well established, the image pickup device is gradually adopted to obtain electronic files of the documents.
When an image pickup device of a notebook computer is used to capture the image of a document, some difficulties possibly occur. For example, it is critical to hold the document steady. In a case that a document to be captured by the image pickup device of the notebook computer is held by the user's hand, the document is readily rocked due to the long holding time. Under this circumstance, the obtained document image is usually blurred. For preventing from rocking of the document and thus obtaining a sharp document image, a static document stand is used for holding the document steady. The use of the document stand, however, incurs another problem. In a case that the document stand is used in other places, the user should carry the notebook computer and the document stand at the same time, which is very troublesome to the user.
For convenience, the document is directly placed on a working plane (e.g. a desk plane) without the need of the document stand. After the document is placed on a proper location of the working plane, the upper cover of the notebook computer is rotated such that the image pickup device is aligned with or close to the document. Meanwhile, the image of the document is captured by the image pickup device. Since the focal length for a general image pickup device is approximately 60 centimeters, the distance between the image pickup device and the document is possibly smaller than the preset focal length (approximately 60 centimeters) if the upper cover is rotated to have the image pickup device be aligned with the document. Under this circumstance, the obtained image of the document is blurred and thus fails to be recognized by the naked eyes.
For obviating the drawbacks encountered from the prior art, there is a need of providing a notebook computer having an image pickup device to capture a sharp image of a document placed on a working plane without the need of carrying the document stand.